Saturday 20 / April / 2024
MUSCAT: The Sultanate of Oman has improved its ranking on the Global Soft Power Index 2023 along with other GCC and Arab nations.
According to the British Brand Finance report for 2023, Oman climbed to 46th place in the world from last year’s ranking of 49.
In the latest ranking, Oman got 40.7 points to be ranked sixth among the 13 Arab nations.
Besides Oman, other nations included in this year’s Global Soft Power Index are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Brand Finance said that the index scores were based on a variety of metrics, which in combination provided “a balanced and holistic assessment of nations’ presence, reputation, and impact on the world’s stage.”
These include: Familiarity, influence, reputation and performance, with the latter being based on the eight pillars that are business and trade, governance, international relations, culture and heritage, media and communication, education and science, people and values as well as sustainable future. Soft power is a term coined in 1990 by Joseph Nye, a political scientist and former US assistant secretary of defence, to refer to a nation’s ability to gain desired outcomes through persuasion, rather than by means of coercion or payment.
It can be used to appeal to countries instead of coercing them, in contrast to the traditional hard power approach that relies on military and economic means.
Oman advanced 28 places in the people and values index, ranking 29th in the world, and rose 24 places in the culture and heritage field to be ranked 62nd globally.
In the field of education and science, Oman moved up 19 places to rank 36th in the world, and rose 13 places in the field of media and communication to rank 46th globally. On international relations, Oman is ranked 35th in the world, and advanced one place in business and commerce to be ranked 39th in the world.
According to the Global Soft Power Index 2023, Russia is the world’s only nation to lose soft power over the past year, as its reputation plummeted globally in the wake of its aggression against Ukraine, causing it to drop out of the ranking’s top 10.
Ukraine saw the strongest soft power improvement this year among all 121 nation brands in the ranking, driven by a steep increase in familiarity and influence.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany retained their top 3 spots in the ranking.
China retained “future growth potential” despite being overtaken by Japan in the top 5, following reduced ability to engage with global audiences due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The UAE entered the top 10 as the first nation brand from the Middle East, on the back of a successful EXPO 2020 and in anticipation of COP 28.
For the fourth year running, the UAE achieved the highest score of any Middle Eastern nation brand, but this year’s increase of +3.2 to 55.2 has meant a jump of five ranks to allow it to claim 10th position in the global ranking for the first time.
The latest iteration of the annual study by brand evaluation consultancy Brand Finance was launched recently at the Global Soft Power Summit in London, UK.
The Global Soft Power Index is a research study conducted annually by brand evaluation consultancy Brand Finance on a representative sample of 100,000+ respondents in 100+ markets worldwide, measuring perceptions of 121 nation brands.
